[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84255-en":3,"doc-seo-84255-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},84255,13056703019662,"Evangeline","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253a8e92610077?_k=1778726343310543188",8,"Research & Report","Answering Without Referring: How AI Search Rewrites the Web’s Economic Bargain","Search engines traditionally route users from queries to websites, allocating attention while monetizing rankings and sending traffic to destinations. AI search changes this intermediary role because information can be resolved inside the chat interface via web retrieval plus language-model synthesis. Using URL-level Comscore U.S. desktop clickstream, ChatGPT produces outbound clicks in only 5.2% of sessions versus 31.1% for Google. Residual clicks shift toward specialized destinations away from ad-supported sites. Wider access reduces traditional search by 9.4%, with the largest referral losses in informational categories, signaling a major shift in digital intermediation.","arXiv :2607 .07652v 1 [ cs .CY] 8 Jul 2026  \nAnswering Without Referring:  \nHow AI Search Rewrites the Web’s Economic Bargain  \nQiaoni Shi, Kai Zhu, and Kai Gu  \nBocconi University, Milan, Italy  \nThis version: July 2026  \nAbstract  \nSearch engines have long allocated attention on the web by routing users from queries to websites. AI search changes this arrangement because information needs can be resolved inside the intermediary. Using URL-level Comscore U.S. desktop clickstream, we compare ChatGPT and Google information-seeking occasions and exploit ChatGPT Search access expansions to estimate traditional search displacement. ChatGPT produces outbound clicks in only 5.2% of conversation sessions, far below Google’s referral ratio. The remaining clicks are not a scaled-down Google stream: they skew toward specialized destinations and away from ad-supported sites. Wider access cuts search use by 9 .4%, with search-referral losses largest for informational categories. Our findings identify a central economic shift in digital intermediation: AI search might satisfy information needs inside the intermediary while weakening the referral bargain that has linked search, traffic, and content production on the open web.  \nKeywords: AI search; web traffic; digital intermediation; attention economy; search advertising.  \n1 Introduction  \nSearch engines lowered the cost of finding information (Bakos, 1997 ; Goldfarb and Tucker, 2019) and became the web’s dominant mechanism for allocating attention (Simon, 1971 ; Athey and Ellison, 2011) . For two decades, the economic bargain was simple: users expressed information needs, search engines ranked and monetized queries, and destination websites received visits they could convert into advertising impressions, subscriptions, purchases, or brand equity (Athey and Ellison, 2011 ; Edelman et al. , 2007 ; Varian, 2007 ; Ghose and Yang, 2009) . The bargain was implicit rather than contractual: search engines captured value atthe query, while content producers supplied information and captured value after the click. AI search, an answer interface that combines web retrieval with language-model synthesis, changes this bargain by moving resolution inside the intermediary. Instead of returning only ranked links, the interface can retrieve from websites, synthesize a response, and satisfy the information need before the user visits a source. Figure 1 contrasts this architecture with Google search. Google monetizes the query and routes attention through a click; AI search may end with an in-chat answer, leaving websites only an optional residual click-out stream.  \nThis is a paradigm shift in the web’s traffic economy: discovery no longer has to culminate in a visit, because the intermediary can resolve the need before the user reaches a source. Citations and links can preserve attribution, but they do not recreate the attention, ad impression, conversion opportunity, or subscriber relationship attached to a visit. That difference is economically consequential because traffic remains central to content publishing, digital advertising, and online commerce (Chiou and Tucker, 2017 ; Jeon and Nasr, 2016 ; Zhao and Berman, 2026) . The empirical question is therefore how often AI search retains information needs, where the residual referrals go, and whether wider access reduces  \ntraditional search.  \nFigure 1 . AI search changes web intermediation from routed visits to residual referrals.  \nNotes: The left column summarizes traditional search: the intermediary ranks links, monetizes the query, and routes the user to a destination website. The right column summarizes AI search: retrieval and synthesis can resolve the task inside the intermediary, so websites receive only optional residual click-out traffic.  \nA growing academic literature documents pieces of this transition. Recent work has been valuable in measuring how LLM adoption changes online behavior, whether LLM use substitutes for or complements tradi","cbCaimiurGaDNjhT","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimiurGaDNjhT","pdf",1783663,5,1,74,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Economic bargain and intermediation shift\n## Research question and empirical approach\n# Data and identification strategy\n## Comscore clickstream and session reconstruction\n## ChatGPT Search access expansions\n# Key results","[{\"question\":\"What economic bargain of web search does AI search disrupt?\",\"answer\":\"Traditional search monetizes the query and routes attention through a click to destination sites, where visits create advertising and conversion value. AI search can resolve the information need inside the intermediary, turning destination visits into an optional residual stream.\"},{\"question\":\"How often does ChatGPT send outbound clicks compared with Google?\",\"answer\":\"ChatGPT creates outbound clicks in 5.2% of conversation sessions, far below Google’s referral ratio of 31.1% of queries.\"},{\"question\":\"What effect does wider ChatGPT Search access have on traditional search use?\",\"answer\":\"Wider access cuts search use by 9.4%, with the biggest referral losses for informational categories.\"}]",1784194403,186,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"answering-without-referring-how-ai-search-rewrites-the-webs-economic-bargain","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/answering-without-referring-how-ai-search-rewrites-the-webs-economic-bargain/84255/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-27","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What economic bargain of web search does AI search disrupt?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"Traditional search monetizes the query and routes attention through a click to destination sites, where visits create advertising and conversion value. AI search can resolve the information need inside the intermediary, turning destination visits into an optional residual stream.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How often does ChatGPT send outbound clicks compared with Google?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"ChatGPT creates outbound clicks in 5.2% of conversation sessions, far below Google’s referral ratio of 31.1% of queries.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"What effect does wider ChatGPT Search access have on traditional search use?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"Wider access cuts search use by 9.4%, with the biggest referral losses for informational categories.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]